Update from Nashville Fellows Board Chairman Bo Bartholomew 1/6/13
Dear Friends of the Nashville Fellows Program (NFP), Happy 2014! We are official half way through the first NFP inaugural class’s first year. As the new year begins, I wanted to share a few highlights and to share some exciting news.
Beginning this month, the 8 Fellows will begin a semester focused on Vocation and Calling beginning with a retreat later this week with Art Lindsley (http://tifwe.org/about-us/people/art-lindsley/ ) from the Center for Faith, Work and Economics. For the past four months, the Fellows have been taking courses under the leadership of Scotty Smith and have been studying a foundational understanding of Christ and His Kingdom while working in their local churches and in the local business community.
This class is a special group of individuals who have bonded and become a true community. You can follow along with more details on the NFP blog at http://thenashvillefellows.org/blog/ . I want to also highlight that the application process for the 2015 Class is already open and we have had several applications already submitted for next year! We would encourage you to get involved and pray as we hope to have 12 Fellows in next year’s class.
As many of you may know, the NFP has been incubated through the partnership and leadership of three churches—Christ Presbyterian Church, St. George’s Episcopal Church and West End Community Church. Their leadership has embraced the NFP as a ministry to transform our city into one the reflects the kingdom of God in our midst. These churches stepped up collectively to lead this first year. As we lean into a new year with a larger class and into a future with a potential for new churches and additional classes, the NFP Board has elected to hire a fulltime director that can be dedicated to the needs of not just the Fellows themselves but to the community in which we serve through the NFP.
I want to introduce you to Shane Bowen and welcome him into this new role beginning March 1st. Shane has been the coordinator of the West End Community Church Fellows and has stepped up this past year to serve the NFP. He will be leaving his position at West End to join the NFP in order to facilitate the needs we have to better serve Nashville. His bio is on the website and he can be reached at shane@nashvillefellows.com.
There will be a Spring Retreat for all the Fellows programs in DC if any of you are interested in joining the Fellows from around the country. We hope to have a celebration in May as our first class of Fellows graduate, so please be looking for these invitations as we get closer to these dates.
With the exciting growth in our city of Nashville, I can think of nothing more meaningful to our city’s future than the Nashville Fellows Program.
Bo Bartholomew
Chairman, The Nashville Fellows Program